Irrai, Variant (5e Deity)
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Irrai[edit]
Alignment. Chaotic Good
Domains. Arcana, Trickery, Light
Divine Rank. Lesser Deity
Irrai, also known as the First Fool, is a rather scatterbrained deity, jumping from one passion to another with reckless abandon. He is said to have been born within Pandemonium, and his wild temperament reflects this. Many eons ago, Irrai was deemed to be too reckless and unpredictable to continue living as a god, and he was forcibly stripped of both his divinity and his memory, and forced to live out the rest of his days as a mere human. His time as a mortal tempered his madness, and he developed a close bond with another human whose original name has been lost to time, and the two of them went on many an adventure in an attempt to uncover Irrai's lost past. Eventually, they succeeded, and Irrai was allowed to regain his divinity, on the condition that the human whom he traveled with was to keep him on a leash. And so, Irrai and the other unnamed human ascended to godhood. It is a matter of furious debate among religious scholars whether or not Irrai and the unnamed human were ever romantically involved. It has never been explicitly stated that they were, but many state that it's the only logical reason that Irrai didn't simply end the life of the other human upon realizing his past. Detractors of this theory state that it was not any one person who changed Irrai from Chaotic Neutral to Chaotic Good, and it was simply the human experience which changed his outlook on life. Irrai purposefully does not provide any answers to this question. He finds the arguments to be very entertaining.
Prior to his reformation, Irrai's form was an ever-changing mishmash of various traits from other creatures, compiling everything from Shadow Dragons to simple rats, although he did have a particular fondness for aberration-inspired forms, given that his body was tailor-made to inspire immediate madness in whoever looked upon him. After his life as a human, Irrai chose to modify his human body, ridding it of blemishes such as pimples, and then assigned that as his new body. Before his life as a human, Irrai did not assign himself with any gender. After his life as a human, he decided that he was comfortable with being a male.
Irrai has made great steps to make up for his disruptive activity prior to his reformation, and the other gods have been largely receptive, but some still hold a grudge over his previous behavior. This sentiment is particularly strong among Lawful deities, although some deities who are specifically Lawful Good are beginning to come around to the idea that Irrai has truly changed.
Irrai's experience living as a mortal, and his subsequent turn from Chaotic Neutral (and borderline Chaotic Evil) towards Chaotic Good has caused him to believe strongly in the idea that everybody has a little bit of goodness in them. He did not used to want Clerics serving him, but after his reformation, he decided otherwise. He is willing to grant magical ability to anybody, but he will not hesitate to take away this power if he feels that his Clerics are misusing them. He will encourage his Clerics to kill evil creatures only as a last resort, but he understands that there is often no other option. He is much more strict when concerning those who actively bring harm upon others for harm's own sake. He detests to do so, but he has been known to forcibly trap Clerics that... *ahem*, misbehave, in Pandemonium for a time before releasing them back into the Material Plane, stripped of their magic, and forced to prove their ability to be good under these circumstances, similar to how Irrai himself changed. If they do show improvement, Irrai welcomes the Clerics back into his service with open arms.
As a Cleric of Irrai, you may receive specific instruction from Irrai in the form of dreams, hallucinations, possessed animals, but only if you are particularly trusted by Irrai, usually signified by being a high-level Cleric. Otherwise, you are expected to chart your own course in the world, while still adhering to the doctrines that Irrai lays out for all of his Clerics. Quests that Irrai assigns to his Clerics are bizarre, and often seem inconsequential, but wind up accomplishing a lot of good in the world due to a sort of butterfly effect.
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